Bail Money

In a move that could be interpreted as a sign that votes might be getting hard to come by for his nuclear deal with Iran, President Obama is doing what he does best to try to rally support in Congress: He’s enlisting grassroots community groups to apply pressure on wavering politicians.

According to Time, the former community organizer inspired his troops in a conference call Thursday:

“You guys have to get more active and loud and involved and informed,” Obama said on conference call Thursday. Obama challenged the organizers to take an approach opposite what organizers took when Congress was mulling whether or not to authorize the Iraq War. His frustration with that effort, he said, was in the fact that everyone got “loud and active when it was too late.”

One man was responsible for the deaths or injuries of thousands of American soldiers in Iraq. That same man is responsible for sowing sectarian conflict today in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. And yet, in the nuclear deal with Iran, this man, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, Major General Qassem Suleimani, will have sanctions lifted against him. Indeed, he will receive a large infusion of cash to wreak more havoc and terror. Having served in Iraq, having experienced first-hand his proxy operations against American forces, and having lost men to Gen. Suleimani’s terror operations, I find this offensive.

One man was responsible for the deaths or injuries of thousands of American soldiers in Iraq. That same man is responsible for sowing sectarian conflict today in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. And yet, in the nuclear deal with Iran, this man, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, Major General Qassem Suleimani, will have sanctions lifted against him. Indeed, he will receive a large infusion of cash to wreak more havoc and terror. Having served in Iraq, having experienced first-hand his proxy operations against American forces, and having lost men to Gen. Suleimani’s terror operations, I find this offensive.

A spokesman for the U.S. Navy on Sunday denied reports that disciplinary charges will be filed against Lt. Cmdr. Timothy White for discharging an unauthorized weapon on federal property.

According to a post of Facebook and other social media sites, a statement reads, “Stories of Navy personnel being charges with an offense are not true. There is still a long way to go in reviewing the facts of this tragic incident, but at this time we can confirm no service member has been charged with an offense.”

Several news outlets, including this one, jumped on a report by national columnist Allen West on Saturday that stated he was enraged after he had confirmed that LTC White, who drew his personal sidearm in the July 16 terrorist attack on a Navy Reserve Center in Chattanooga, would face a reprimand and could possibly be court marshaled.

The reaction by the public was immediate after the columnist West urged readers: to “Flood the phones of SecNav Ray Mabus and SecDef Ash Carter and ask them whose side they’re on. Demand the charges being brought against Lt.Cmdr White be immediately dropped. If those charges are not dropped, (Allen West) will personally lead the charge to have Carter and Mabus removed from their positions.

Department of Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson says that the Islamic State wants to be viewed as Islamic, but they aren’t.

During an interview at the Aspen Security Forum, the interviewer asks if Johnson and DHS are missing the religious dimension of the terrorism we face by denying that it’s inspired by Islam. “I couldn’t disagree more,” Johnson says.

Disagree with what?

Even if you buy Johnson’s intellectually feeble claim that the Koran-quoting, Allah-praising, Halal-keeping members of Islamic State have “no connection to Islam,” they certainly believe they do. Denying a connection between al Qaeda and Islam would be like denying any connection between the Christian Identity movement and Christianity. The typical Christian understands that, which is why they don’t object.

Even more disturbing (and once again, watch the video for yourself), Johnson says he can’t call Islamic terror “Islamic terror” out of deference to American Muslims because they won’t cooperate with homeland security efforts if he does. So the head of DHS believes American Muslims will stand by and watch their fellow Americans die in bomb blasts over a vocabulary dispute?

That may be the most insulting thing you’ll ever hear anyone say about Islam in America.

If I met someone at a cocktail party and they expressed such a juvenile, naive opinion, I’d roll my eyes and wander back to the bar for another Bushmills. But to hear it from the guy whose job is to protecting my family from terrorists? That’s too important to be ignored.

The ridiculous campaign against Confederate symbols shows no signs of abating, as demonstrated by a disturbing crime in Mississippi.

Bob Comans, an 85-year-old Korean War veteran, discovered he was a victim of vandalism when his daughter found that his Mississippi state flags, which he flies along with the American flag, were set on fire in his driveway and the words “Blacks Rule” were spray-painted on the pavement, WLOX reported.

“I’m tore up. It just really disturbed me. That’s the worst thing that could happen to a flag, get burned. I wouldn’t want anybody to even walk on it,” Comans told WLOX.

The police said they are following leads and plan to charge whoever is responsible with malicious mischief, but Comans said he thinks it’s a hate crime.

Calls for more gun control almost always follow a public crime or terror attack in which the attacker–or attackers–use a gun. Yet many of the most infamous attacks take place in gun free zones–places where law-abiding citizens disarm themselves to comply with the rules while criminals take advantage of disarmed masses and open fire.

What follows are just a few of the many examples of shootings in gun free zones that could be listed. There is not one type of firearm that can be blamed–the weapon used was sometimes a handgun, sometimes a rifle, other times a shotgun–nor is there one specific race that can be pinpointed–the attackers come from various races/ethnicities. Nor is this a situation where expanding background checks would have made even the slightest difference–all the attackers listed but one, Adam Lanza, passed a background check for their firearms. Lanza opted to steal his guns instead.

The common thread is that the attacks took place in areas where the gunman knew he could inflict damage at his own pace, without the threat of reprisal from armed citizens:

Lafayette Grand Theatre: On July 23 John Russell Houser allegedly opened fire with a .40 caliber pistol, killing two people–Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson–and injuring nine others in a gun free zone.

President Barack Obama will Monday unveil what he called the “biggest, most important step we’ve ever taken” to fight climate change, a sensitive issue central to his legacy.

The White House will release the final version of America’s Clean Power Plan, a set of environmental rules and regulations that will home in on the pollution from the nation’s power plants, setting limits on power-plant carbon emissions.

Laying out how climate change was a threat to the health, well being and security of millions of Americans, and adding that time was of the essence, Obama said in a video released early Sunday: “Climate change is not a problem for another generation. Not anymore.”

“Power plants are the single biggest source of harmful carbon pollution that contributes to climate change,” added Obama, who made the battle against climate change a core promise of his 2008 election campaign.

“But until now there have been no federal limits to the amount of that pollution that those plants can dump into the air.”

He added that without imposing limits, “existing power plants can still dump unlimited amounts of harmful carbon pollution into the air weekly.

“For the sake of our kids, for the health and safety of all Americans, that’s about to change.”

Obama argued that the plans will lead to lower energy bills for everyday Americans and create jobs in the renewable energy sector.

On Thursday, the White House came to the defense of Planned Parenthood calling the stream of damning videos against the organization “fraudulent.” The talking points used by the White House came straight from Planned Parenthood itself.

Now, according to the visitor log, it was discovered that the president of Planned Parenthood has made 39 visits to the Obama White House since he’s taken office.

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards made her first trip to the White House on Obama’s first day in office. Since then, she has met with numerous other former and current White House advisers, such as Obama’s former senior adviser David Plouffe (four times) and Valerie Jarrett (five times).

If you weren’t getting enough laughs out of the 2016 campaign yet, the idea that Biden is gearing up to jump in the race may get you there. Guaranteed for non sequiturs and lots of women grabbing that the media ignores, Biden would bring that special something into the race. Something like cholera…

A hitchhiking robot that captured the hearts of fans worldwide met its demise in the U.S.

The Canadian researchers who created hitchBOT as a social experiment told The Associated Press that someone in Philadelphia damaged the robot beyond repair on Saturday, ending its first American tour after about two weeks.

The kid-size robot set out to travel cross-country after successfully hitchhiking across Canada in 26 days last year and parts of Europe. It is immobile on its own so gets from place to place by relying on the kindness of strangers.

It started in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on July 17 with its thumb raised skyward, a grin on its digital face and tape wrapped around its cylindrical head that read “San Francisco or bust.”

It bounced around the Boston area and was briefly taken to sea. One day, it took in a Red Sox game. But hitchBOT never made it off the East Coast.

The creators were sent an image of the vandalized robot Saturday but cannot track its location because the battery is dead. They said they don’t know who destroyed it or why. But co-creator Frauke Zeller said many children who adored the robot are now heartbroken.

It took three videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors and executives discussing the culling and retailing of aborted baby parts, but Hillary Clinton finally managed to say that she found the videos “disturbing.”

For a professional politician like Clinton, whose every word is vetted by the vast right lobe of her brain, “disturbing” in the vernacular of less-scripted folk would be something like “horrifying” or “vile.”

But Clinton, whose base includes supporters of Planned Parenthood , as well as the mega-fundraising, pro-choice Emily’s List, tiptoed out on a limb. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it brave, but I also wouldn’t underestimate its significance. Even a passionately pro-choice presidential candidate has to pause at this juncture.

A tipping point may have already been reached, however, as people recoil from that which cannot be denied. Where once many could avert our eyes from the details of abortion, the details are now all we see and, thanks to the videos, hear.[…]

Planned Parenthood offers only a manual breast exam that any woman can do herself — and performs no mammograms. Rather, it refers women to other clinics. Thus, the ads are at least exaggerated if not purposely deceptive.

Also deceptive is the claim that defunding Planned Parenthood would strip women of health care. In fact, a Senate bill to defund Planned Parenthood, co-authored by Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), stipulates that all of its public funding be reallocated to federally qualified community health centers, which provide all women’s health-care services except abortion, without regard to a person’s ability to pay.

In other words, Planned Parenthood would still be able to provide abortions, since no federal funding can legally be used for abortion, anyway. And abortion opponents would no longer have to worry that their tax money was going to an abortion provider, even though the funds can’t legally be used for abortion.

The defense attorneys for the six Baltimore cops charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray made two explosive claims in a court motion filed on Thursday.

According to The Baltimore Sun, the officers’ attorneys are claiming that the office of Baltimore city state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby has evidence that the 25-year-old Gray had “attempted to injure himself” in police custody prior to his April 12 arrest. They also claim that Mosby had a “private meeting” with the medical examiner who conducted Gray’s autopsy days before the report was released.

Mosby’s office has failed to turn that evidence over to the defense, the attorneys asserted.

“Based upon information and belief, the State’s Attorney’s Office was informed of this fact, yet failed to disclose to the Defendants any statements, reports, or other communications relating to this information,” the attorneys said of evidence that Gray has tried to harm himself during a previous arrest.

There’s no way this man could be president, right? Just look at him: rumpled and scowling, bald pate topped by an entropic nimbus of white hair. Just listen to him: ranting, in his gravelly Brooklyn accent, about socialism. Socialism!

And yet here we are: In the biggest surprise of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, this thoroughly implausible man, Bernie Sanders, is a sensation.

He is drawing enormous crowds—11,000 in Phoenix, 8,000 in Dallas, 2,500 in Council Bluffs, Iowa—the largest turnout of any candidate from any party in the first-to-vote primary state. He has raised $15 million in mostly small donations, to Hillary Clinton’s $45 million—and unlike her, he did it without holding a single fundraiser.

While Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama do their best to paper over the brutality of the Iranian regime and force through a nuclear agreement, Iran’s religious leader has another issue on his mind: The destruction of Israel.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has published a new book called “Palestine,” a 416-page screed against the Jewish state. A blurb on the back cover credits Khamenei as “The flagbearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem.”

A friend sent me a copy from Iran, the only place the book is currently available, though an Arabic translation is promised soon.
Obama administration officials likely hope that no American even hears about it.

The Seattle CEO who reaped a publicity bonanza when he boosted the salaries of his employees to a minimum of $70,000 a year says he has fallen on hard times.

Dan Price, 31, tells the New York Times that things have gotten so bad he’s been forced to rent out his house.

Only three months ago Price was generating headlines—and accusations of being a socialist — when he announced the new salary minimum for all 120 employees at his Gravity Payments credit card processing firm. Price said he was doing it, and slashing his $1 million pay package to pay for it, to address the wealth gap.

“I’m working as hard as I ever worked to make it work,” he told the Times in a video that shows him sitting on a plastic bucket in the garage of his house. “I’m renting out my house right now to try and make ends meet myself.”

The Times article said Price’s decision ended up costing him a few customers and two of his “most valued” employees, who quit after newer employees ended up with bigger salary hikes than older ones.

“He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump,” Gravity financial manager Maisey McMaster, 26, told the paper.

She said when she talked to Price about it, he treated her as if she was being selfish and only thinking about herself.

“That really hurt me,” she said. “I was talking about not only me, but about everyone in my position.”

Approaching burnout, she quit.

Grant Moran, 29, also quit, saying the new pay-scale was disconcerting

“Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me,” he told the paper. “It shackles high performers to less motivated team members.”

Price said McMaster and Moran, or even critic Rush Limbaugh, the talk show host, were not wrong.

“There’s no perfect way to do this and no way to handle complex workplace issues that doesn’t have any downsides or trade-offs,” he said.

Speaking to John Catsimatidis and his “Cats Roundtable” on AM 970, Bratton said police need help from other city agencies to deal with this worsening scourge on Gotham streets.

“You can’t arrest your way out of this problem,” Bratton said. “It does require coordinated effort with Health & Hospitals, the Homeless Services.”

The Big Apple’s top cop said dealing with emotionally disturbed people, who have turned city streets into their personal toilets, will be a top priority of his department.

“I’m going to train 5,000 to 10,000 officers over the next year on how to deal with the emotionally disturbed,” he said.
While acknowledging the problem, Bratton was care not to lay blame on City Hall.

“To its credit, this administration is going to spend tens of millions of dollars on trying to straighten it out,” he said.

A Super PAC backing Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton raised $15.6 million in the first six months of the year, according to a report filed on Friday with the Federal Elections Committee.

The Priorities USA Action’s haul was dwarfed by the record-shattering $103 million raised by Republican Jeb Bush. Still, the large sums of money given by a fairly small group of donors stand in contrast to the small-donor image Clinton has sought to cultivate for her campaign.

That image holds true for the campaign leg of her fundraising efforts. The contributions page for her campaign boasts of 38,775 receipts, most in amounts of $100 or less.

The contributions page for her Super PAC, however, almost reads like a billing for a big-budget Hollywood movie. Dreamworks Animations CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg gave $1 million; director Steven Spielberg donated $1 million; Saban Entertainment CEO Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl, each gave $1 million. Five more million-dollar donations are also recorded on the filing.

A federal judge has ordered Hillary Clinton and two of her top aides at the State Department, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, to attest, under penalty of perjury, that they have turned over all official government records in their possession.

U.S. District Court judge Emmett Sullivan issued the bombshell ruling late Friday, hours after the State Department released its second batch of Clinton emails.

The ruling was issued in the matter of a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department.

Sullivan issued three orders that will likely produce answers to looming questions about Clinton’s private email server arrangement. Clinton has repeatedly stated that she turned over all work-related emails she maintained on her private email account — [email protected] She gave the State Department 55,000 pages of emails in December but deleted a large batch that she said were personal in nature. But Clinton has not allowed anyone to check that claim as she has so far refused to turn the server over to a third-party for inspection.